The Who "Who's Next" [1971]

Just when you though it was impossible for rock to get more self-righteously pretentious AND still generate radio play, previous benchmark-setters The Who (with the pungent load of bombast that was "Tommy") outdo themselves by invading pre-Nam draftees and their easy girlfriends across every beer-can-littered forest preserve in America in the summer of '71 with "Who's Next." Aside from Roger Daltrey's adreline-injected bullfrog voice, lead pomp provocateur Pete Townshend chimes in far too often with his melodramatic pedestrian whine. Besides which, Townshend's still stuck in a power chord rut he hadn't been able to escape since he started playing guitar, regardless how many pin-headed synth loops he throws over the top of the songs no one who's listened to more than a half-hour of classic rock radio will ever be able to escape. It's tough to measure the level of destruction "Who's Next" wrought on Western society, especially by the time they promise "The Song Is Over" and still carry on for an entire Side B. Finally, on the cover "art," The Who are pissing on a wall; they should have been taking a huge, steaming dump to better describe the music within.